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Stop!
This warmer is a competitive but fun way to review vocabulary.Elementary to Pre-Intermediate

Spot-less!
It's red, smelly, grows in the sea -- and it could spell the end of hours of angst in front of the mirror for teenagers stricken by pimples or dandruff. (seaweed, synonyms, dictation.)Intermediate

A Nightmare Dream Holiday
A contest to win a dream holiday for two people turned into a tax nightmare for a Swedish student. (Income tax, dialogue, past simple and past continuous.) Elementary

What's New
This warmer from Canada is useful for practising the reading skills necessary for understanding news articles.Intermediate

Verbs - Intransitives and passives
Sharon from Taiwan wants to know if there is any grammatical rule that says we can't use
intransitive verbs in a passive sentence. Anna replies ...Intermediate

Yummy Fish
It's a stressful job, living in a fish tank and waiting to be cooked. But a Greek university is making progress in getting fish to relax. According to research, relaxed fish taste better. ('For' and 'when' - when something happened and how long - past simple and present perfect, listening)Elementary to Pre-Intermediate

Pronouns - I or I am?
Mei from Germany asks Anna about short answers and the use of pronouns.Intermediate

Family Shield
A warmer to introduce yourself to others. This mini-lesson encourages spoken fluency through students describing themselves and their families. It could also tie in very well with these instant lessons: "What's in a Name?" a pre-Intermediate lesson about a German court deciding whether the name a couple have chosen for their new baby is suitable for a girl and "What's your surname?" a lesson that looks at why people change their surnames. Pre-Intermediate

Cyber Lambs
Ten of New Zealand's 44 million sheep have their own web site, after Japanese school children adopted them. (Animals, the Internet, using 'at least', 'or more', 'over' and 'plus' with numbers.)
Elementary

Pass the Pit Bull, Please
A Californian man who used to have two pets -- a pit bull terrier and a Burmese python -- now has only one -- a 200-pound python with a pit bull-sized bulge. (Pets, animals, dangerous pets, must + infinitive of verb, must have + past participle of verb.)Pre-Intermediate

Describe me
This warmer practises the present simple and present continuous verb forms. Students are asked to describe people in photographs. A good warmer to use with the instant lesson "Blondes Earn Less".Elementary to Pre-Intermediate

Turkeys Galore
Each Thanksgiving, Americans eat about 535 million pounds of turkey, and a turkey-cooking hotline gives advice to people with problems a trucker who needed to know how long to cook a turkey on the engine of his truck, and a Kentucky woman who panicked when her tiny chihuahua jumped inside a turkey carcass and couldn't get out. (Thanksgiving, holidays and festivals, synonyms, apostrophes, use of 'although' and 'even though'.)Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate

Parking Meters
Hundreds of motorists didn't have to pay for parking when new solar-powered parking meters stopped working because of Britain's bad weather. (Solar power, traffic, cars, sequencing, use of 'don't have to'.)Elementary

A costly drink
Austrian police arrested a man who robbed a branch of a savings bank where he was known as a customer. (Crime, headlines, guessing from context, the passive voice.)Pre-Intermediate

Talking about seasons
A good warmer for talking about dates and seasons in different parts of the world.Elementary

Nostradamus Email
Thousands of people received e-mails containing a prophecy from 16th century French astrologer Nostradamus that forecast the attack on the World Trade Center in New York, often with a second part forecasting that the attack on the twin towers would mark the beginning of World War III. (Believing information, Nostradamus, email, summarizing, researching, giving a talk.)Advanced

The Paranormal
Mobile phones are killing off ghosts, a British expert says. (Mobile phones, ghosts, the paranormal, writing a story, summarizing , using "would" and "used to".)Intermediate

Life imitating art?
It was like life imitating art when a woman, who collapsed at a screening of "Thirteen Conversations About One Thing,'' was rescued by the movie's star, Matthew McConaughey. (Movies, movie stars, 20 questions, ordering, grammar dictation, use of "who".)Pre-Intermediate

Who Am I?
This is a nice variation on the ever popular 20 Questions game.Pre-Intermediate

Articles - an hotel?
This letter from Carl is in response to an earlier Anna Grammar page "A unique". Anna's reply looks at pronunciation and articles.Intermediate

Space Travel
One lucky Briton is set to win a prize that's literally out of this world -- a trip into space. (Competitions, prizes, space travel, the solar system, suffixes, prepositions ‘before’ and ‘after’ followed by a verb.)Upper-Intermediate

Phone Home
A British tourist lost in the Australian bush in heavy rain and fog rang his father in England on his mobile phone to get help. (Rescue, mobile phones, using present tense and past tense.)Elementary

Verbs of Perception
Leslie from Thailand has a student who wants a bit of help with these verbs. Anna to the rescue ....Intermediate

Getting to Know Your Profile
This is a good activity for the first day of a new session or can be developed for other topics, questions, or brainstorming activities. Pre-Intermediate

What's in a Name?
Sophia tops the list of names for American baby girls for the second year in a row, while King and Messiah are becoming increasingly popular names for boys, the U.S. Social Security Administration said. (Names, famous people, retelling and comparing, word order.)Pre-Intermediate

Face-to-Face
The founder of online based "My Virtual Corp." and a totally wired executive, has found that even in this era of e-mail, mobile phones and instant communication, there's nothing like a face-to-face meeting to win a new client. (Online companies, e-mail, dictation, jobs, but, although or despite.)Upper-Intermediate

Verbs -ing forms and modals
Frank from Taiwan gives Anna some feedback and makes a couple of suggestions. The first is about Anna's reply to Kathleen from Japan in which she discusses the "Future Perfect". The second comment refers to Anna's series of exercises about modals.Intermediate

Pizza Anyone?
This appetizing warmer is a good way for students to practice asking and answering questions about likes and dislikes and to practice negotiation language. By the end of the exercise, students should also have formed new groups for the other activities you have planned for the day.Pre-Intermediate

Connected
Any time there's a disaster, people reach for the nearest phone. The attack on September the 11th was no exception. This lesson looks at how mobile phones played an important role in Tuesday's tragic chain of events. (Telephones, summary completion, abbreviations.)Upper-Intermediate to Advanced

Bad Parking
A bad choice of car park led to the capture of an escaped Texas capital murderer for the second time in his criminal career. (Criminals, escapes, chain stories, sequencing, suffixes.)Pre-Intermediate

Would you mind?
Sharon from Tawian asked Anna if she wouldn't mind answering a confusing question. Here is Anna's reply ... Intermediate

A Ship Came into the Harbour
This is a good warmer for reviewing letters of the alphabet, nouns and nouns phrases. It can also be used to discuss abstract nouns.Elementary

Mystery Caller
Staff at a Scottish safari park were shocked to discover a chimpanzee was the mystery caller who had kept phoning their mobile phones. (Animals, mobile phones, sequencing, writing a postcard, compound nouns.)Elementary

Reviving a Lost Art
France's Sorbonne University has launched a degree course in professional letter writing because a generation addicted to brief e-mails and mobile phone text messaging has forgotten how to write letters. (Methods of communication, writing letters, history, use of 'as'.)Intermediate

Prepositions - to and for
Larama in Brazil says her students have a problem using these prepositions correctly and asked Anna to try and simplify things.Intermediate

Sharon's Game
An active and interesting way to review vocabulary, grammar or even general knowledge from previous lessons. Note: Pushing, stealing the other team's pen, and erasing the other team's answer is subject to penalty!Intermediate

Verbs + to
Anna offers Tricia from Australia some advice and exercises to help her Japanese students.Intermediate

What time is it?
This simple warmer allows students to focus on question and statement intonation as well as structures for asking for and giving the time. Elementary

Sue them!
Does your boss plague you with irritating phone calls at home? You'd be well within your rights to sue, says Britain's Institute of Management. (Business, conditions of employment, rights and responsibilities,writing an application letter, employment agency role play, use of 'even'.)Upper-Intermediate

Finders Keepers?
A 22-year-old who describes himself as poor but honest became a hero when he found and returned a plastic bag crammed with $203,000 that had fallen off the back of an armored car the night before. (Honesty, finding money, sequencing, the past perfect.)Intermediate

A Helping Hand
A blind Colombian man accompanied by his faithful dog was led to safety by his female boss down 70 flights of a narrow staircase of a tower of the World Trade Center after it was hit by a hijacked plane. (Helping someone, seeing eye dogs, Sequencing, prepositions of place.)Pre-Intermediate

I'm Going To Take a Vacation
This variation on an old party game is a good warmer for the beginning of a new session when the teacher and students do not know each other's names yet.Pre-Intermediate

Confusables - Make and do
Anna helps Patricia and Laurie from the UK with the infamous confusables "make" and "do".Intermediate

Tennis Love
Tennis chiefs could be forced to take action soon as the top women players continue to bring dogs to tournaments. (Sport, pets, summarizing.)Intermediate

The Show Must Go On... Please!
A world-renowned Hungarian pianist broke off his recital at Edinburgh's high-brow International Arts Festival until a cacophony of mobile phones, beeping watches and coughing faded away. (Music, entertainment, ballet, public noise, mobile phones, prefixes and suffixes, 'might as well have + past particle of verb'.)Intermediate to Upper-Intermediate

A Global Issue
"Landmines take or wreck three lives an hour, every hour, every day of every year. We have to come together now to try to stop that," Sir Paul McCartney said on launching Adopt-A-Minefield UK, a new charity raising funds for mine clearance and landmine survivors. (Landmine clearance, global problems, vegetarians, the passive.)Intermediate